


The Kidnapping

by Swump (Zelan)



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Book 2: The Dream Thieves, Gen, Kidnapping, The Dream Thieves Spoilers, Whump, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:21:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26764975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zelan/pseuds/Swump
Summary: The missing details of the kidnapping from The Dream Thieves.
Kudos: 3
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	The Kidnapping

Matthew doesn’t recognize the car that slows to a cruise besides him. He turns to look at it, curiously studying the knife decal on the side. He’s never seen a car this interesting before. Most of the cars here in Henrietta are pretty plain, besides Gansey’s car.

The window rolls down. “Hey, kid.”

Matthew smiles. “Hey.”

This seems to amuse the driver, whose lips quirk in a smile that doesn’t quite seem friendly. He flips up his sunglasses to look Matthew in the eyes. “You’re Lynch’s brother, yeah? I’m a friend of his. He asked me to drive you home.”

Matthew blinks, considering this. He’d met all of Ronan’s friends before, or at least he thought he had, so this was weird, kind of, but maybe this was a new friend? Declan would have scoffed that Ronan wasn’t capable of making friends, but he had Gansey, and Adam, and Blue, since not too long ago. It definitely wasn’t impossible. And anyway, this guy knew Ronan was his brother, so it would make sense.

Lost in thought, Matthew doesn’t notice as the grin slips from the driver’s face, his face hardening and his hand tensing on the steering wheel.

“Okay,” Matthew chirps suddenly, making for the door of the backseat. The driver looks taken aback for a moment, but he quickly recovers, hitting the button to disengage the lock.

As soon as Matthew closes the door, the locks engage and something hits him in the back of the head, quick and hard. Everything goes dark before he even has the chance to understand what’s happened.

\-----

When Matthew comes to, his vision is still dark. His knees are curled to his chest. He’s barely stretched out his legs before they hit a wall. Whimpering with pain and fear, he tries to sit up, only to bang his still-sore head on the roof. When he reflexively reaches to cover the spot, the rope binding his hands rubs his wrists.

Everything lurches suddenly, and Matthew panics.

“Help me! Please, help me!” He screams for Ronan, for Declan, for his mother. A part of him knows they can’t hear him, but it’s all he wants right now, for his vision to flood with light and Ronan to crush him in a hug, for his mother to stroke his hair and tell him everything’s okay.

A thump and a “shut up!” from behind him finally forces him to stop, and he slides across the floor as everything swerves again. Matthew tries to take stock of the situation, figure out what’s going on. He’d gotten into the car with Ronan’s friend, and then - nothing. The last thing he remembered was the car purring beneath him.

It still was. He was in the car, but it was dark and cramped and his hands were bound. The trunk. He was in the trunk.

His breaths come sharp and shallow. Kidnapped. He’s been kidnapped. But at least he knows. He knows where he is. Sort of. He has a brief, faint memory of learning “stranger danger,” of learning not to accept rides from strangers. It had never really made sense to him before now.

Matthew returns his attention to the ropes binding his hands. He doesn’t have anything to cut them with, but when he flexes his hands, he realizes that they aren’t bound all that tightly - he still has some leeway to move, enough to allow him to work at the knot. Whoever had tied him up had been pretty careless about it, probably because he was stuck in the trunk of a moving car anyway. Still, he picks at the knot between harsh swerves that crash him into the walls hard enough that he could feel the bruises forming.

Finally, finally, the rope falls away. He winces as he runs a thumb over his reddened wrist, but there’s nothing he can do about it now. He needs to call for help.

Wriggling in the small space, he reaches for his pocket. And, finding that one empty, he tries the other pocket. Also empty.

Heart lurching, he tries to feel around the floor of the trunk, but he doesn’t find what he’s looking for. Finally, he’s forced to admit to himself that his kidnappers have taken his phone, the one thing that could have linked him to his brothers, to rescue.

Matthew starts to sob. He knows the guy with the white sunglasses and the white knife car has kidnapped him, but he doesn’t know why, or where. He has no way of reaching Ronan. He has no idea what they’re planning on doing to him.

Someone slams on the top of the hood, and Matthew yelps in fear. Tears still run sideways down his face, but silently now, and he’s trembling so hard it hurts. Faintly, he realizes that the car must have stopped moving, but it feels like the thought came from somewhere else, not from him.

“Awake and afraid in there?” someone sneers. The driver. His voice is muffled through the trunk, but Matthew knows it’s him. “Good. You just stay put now. Your brother will be here to pick you up soon.”

The false sweetness makes Matthew’s skin crawl. As the driver starts to talk to someone else, his voice fades away, and Matthew starts to cry again in earnest.

What has he gotten himself into?


End file.
